Responding to a question from conservative host Joe Scarborough, Priebus agreed that the Republican Party needed to "open up its tent" to appeal to a larger percentage of the American public.

"You've got to make Reagan's 80-20 rule cool again. And that's just that my 80 percent friend is not my 20 percent enemy," Priebus said. "We're not going to grow our party by division and subtraction. ... You come into a presidential election with a lot of turnout, and a lot of idiotic things [were] said."

"A lot of idiotic things said — you're right," Scarborough said.

Priebus also told "Morning Joe" that he will urge the party to adopt a primary process that ends earlier and has fewer debates, comparing the 2012 edition to a "traveling circus."

"Quite frankly, I'm someone who — I don't think having our candidates running around in a traveling circus and doing 23 debates, slicing and dicing each other is in the best interests of our party," he said. "I just find that to be ridiculous, and we're going to try to do something about it."